News from Nepal!

Finally, here are some firsthand yet heartbreaking information from Dambar. The houses in Dhading were damaged seriously, Katunge is one of the most affected village in the area. Katunge ward 9 (where FV locates), total 129 houses, only few houses were little broken, 90% of the buildings including FV and the school sponsored by FV were seriously damaged and need to be rebuilt.

None of the emergency relief organisation reaches Katunge yet. Dambar was being told that the villagers need food desperately, most of the household rely on rice as their main intake. Unfortunately the limited reserve also got polluted by the earth and rain after the quake. Each household received 3kg of rice from the local government few days ago, which cannot last for long and no one knows when is the next distribution. Dambar bought approx. 60 bags (25kg each) of rice for the village, a bag of rice could only share between 2 families for instant relief, and a bag of 25kg rice could only last for a family of five barely a month. i.e. 130 bags of rice are needed, however those from Dhading are already sold out and Southern Chitwan is the closest area if they want to order more.Villagers are now sleeping in the fields, temporary shelters build with plastic sheets, reusable roof from the damaged house plus simple wood stand are desperately needed and the basic material cost approx. NPR2000-3000. Villagers stated that they won’t have sufficient time for the rebuild before monsoon, hence they must first clean up the broken houses and resume farming during monsoon.As monsoon is coming soon, if the villagers miss this farming season, that means they may have to stave during winter. Villagers used to keep some cow dung as fertilizers, but also being washed out after the earthquake, hence they hope to have subsidies to buy fertilizers for their farming. Luckily there are still quite a few cows survived which every two families can share one.Overall, rebuild the houses are not the first priority, the most desperately needs are: ordering the rice, to build temporary shelters, to buy fertilizers and resume farming during monsoon and to clean the broken houses. Luckily, there were not many injuries, hence tones of medical supplies are not necessary.Futhermore, we are highly appreciated for those who would like to be a volunteer for FV since the earthquake happened. But please consider the followings if you are planning to come: the FV house is serious damaged, hence volunteers can only do camping while they are here and the condition may be even worse if raining. Monsoon season (mid June to Aug) is coming soon, due to the situation in FV & the roads up to FV during monsoon, volunteers can visit FV before mid of June and we will suspend all the voluntary work afterwards until end of monsoon. Basically, the main task for volunteers now is to help the villagers to clean the damaged houses. Also, as the school is badly damaged, students are expected to resume class next week but in the outdoor area and the morning class provided by FV will be suspended too.Due to the severe situation, FV need your donation to support the emergency relief plus long term rebuild. Please share the message and call for more support! Thank you very much!